NETANYAHU RIVAL GETS A SHOT AT NEW COALITION
ISRAEL PREZ GIVES EX-MILITARY CHIEF GANTZ MANDATE TO FORM GOVT
JERUSALEM: Israel’s ex-military chief Benny Gantz was nominated on Monday to try to form a government but further talks were expected with his bitter rival, premier Benjamin Netanyahu, on an emergency alliance to fight coronavirus.
Gantz, who heads the centrist Blue and White party, called for “unity” and urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to join him as Israel seeks to end a crippling political stalemate after three inconclusive elections in less than a year.
“We must not have a fourth election,” Gantz said, after he was formally nominated to attempt to form an administration by President Reuven Rivlin.
“I’ll do everything to form in as few days as possible a national, patriotic and broad government.”
Gantz, 60, won recommendations on Sunday from 61 lawmakers, a razor thin majority in the 120-member Knesset, or parliament. His backers did not include Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud, but Rivlin has urged the two men to work together in an emergency unity government, in order to avoid a national policy vacuum in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is possible that forming a government quickly will require interim arrangements for the coming months”, Rivlin said on Monday.
Gantz’s path to a longer-term stable coalition is difficult given the deep divisions within the factions that backed him, which include the mainly Arab Joint List and the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu.
Rivlin officially granted Gantz 28 days to try to form a government, a task which proved impossible for any candidate following the two elections last year.
Netanyahu - Israel’s longestserving premier and the first ever to be indicted in office, on graft charges -- has insisted that voters in the March 2 election gave him a mandate to continue as prime minister.
The vote saw Likud secure the most seats but, along with its religious party allies, it fell three seats short of a majority.